Gears Of War 3 Beta Coverage — Final Thoughts

Yes, the dream did finally end. The Gears of War 3 Beta officially ended yesterday, bringing a brief halt to the awesome chainsaw revving action until it can continue when the game releases in September later this year. CaViE and I have had an absolute blast playing the Beta, and we hope many of you were able to get your fix of Gears of War over the past month. CaViE and I will just quickly give you our final thoughts on the beta, and if we think the final product will be a milestone in the series.

I was ecstatic when Epic Games first announced that there would be an open beta for Gears of War 3. To be honest, it helped cushion the blow that was dealt to me when I heard that the game had been delayed to September, with good reason though. The only reason that this beta was possible was because of the delay, and I admire Epic for delaying a game in order to iron out all the bugs that they suspected were present, as well as test the balance of the weapons. All of this testing can ensure a great game at launch, as well as keeping players from having to update a game even a day after launch. Good decision Epic Games.

Okay, now to the beta. It felt really good to get back into the boots of a COG soldier and pick up my trusty Lancer. With a host of new maps, features and weapons it was Gears of War as I had come to know it. At first it was a bit troublesome trying to find a server populated by humans rather than A.I, but as the beta progressed, the number of people playing increased as well. The maps on show were fantastic, striking a balance that allowed players to simultaneously participate in long range and close quarters combat. I found Thrashball as my favourite on many occasions, with the sports-like atmosphere blending with the post-apocalyptic environment perfectly. It also had various places where one could gain a high ground advantage, which often led to heated struggles over the coveted advantage ground. The dynamic features of many of the maps was also a welcome feature, making games more exciting and heart-pounding. When you hear the Scoreboard about to fall in Thrashball, and you realise you are right underneath it, and then you realise you have mere seconds to escape. Yeah, now that is one hell of a rush.

Many of you might have seen some troll fuelled comments about the new Double Barrel Shotgun all over the internet. Let me just say one thing before I continue; anyone who does not enjoy the fact that Gears of War forces you to constantly change between your rifle and shotgun should stop playing right now. Epic has designed the multiplayer in this way for a reason, so there is no point in constantly complaining about it. It was the same in Gears of War 2, and it isn’t about to change. That said, I again enjoy the fact the Epic force players to constantly change what weapon they have equipped in order to be fully effective in combat. A Gnasher against a Lancer will usually lead to a bloody mess of the wielder of the Lancer in a close quarters encounter, though that should be fairly obvious. As for the new Double Barrel Shotgun, it is an awesome addition to the Gears of War armoury, as is the new Retro Lancer and the improvements to the Hammerburst. The Hammerburst may at times feel a bit overpowered, and the same can be said for the Retro Lancer, but I guess that is one of the reasons a beta was hosted.

In the end, I thoroughly enjoyed my time in the beta, and if Epic fixes small issues such as weapon imbalances and minor animation hiccups, Gears of War 3’s multiplayer component will be the best in the series, and an awesome Xbox online exclusive. So, until September, it is back to Gears of War 2 before once again we are heading out into the battlefield, Lancer in hand, to face the Locust horrors that await. I hope to see you all there as well.

There is a moment in gaming, when you’re stacked up against insurmountable odds, when you are your team’s last beacon of hope and the entire match rests upon your survival, when you fight and take it right to the bitter end before going down in a blaze of glory, that you begin to realise: This is why I became a gamer. This is who I am, and this is what I live for…

This beta showed off something that has been sorely lacking in most multiplayer offerings of late: Spirit.

Not often do you find a game where if you can get enough people together that have played it, not only will the conversation be relatively decent, but also you will be hard-pressed to find someone who doesn’t have hundreds of stories to tell, of their experiences with the game. And it’s quite a mindfuck then, to think that this is just the beta.

Going forward, it’s pretty clear that Epic Games have got something truly refined and perfected, now, in their multiplayer offering of Gears of War, and Gears of War 3 will have to do some really stupid things in order to mess that up. It just doesn’t seem likely.

The beta was fun, as if that needed saying. It brought together and made friends out of complete strangers, created many rivalries, created many truly unforgettable moments in gaming and teased players with an actual Xbox Live multiplayer that wasn’t a pain to play. Perhaps it was just the people who made the beta so great, but it helped that the game carried things along with aplomb.

Sure there were issues. I still had crazy lag on busier servers, right towards the end. It’s a beta. These things happen. And in fairness the pros far, far, far outweighed the cons. In fact the pros are the equivalent of someone who regularly binges on McDonald’s while the cons are just this little, homeless anorexic sitting outside on a park bench being ignored.

Look out for the Gears of War 3 preview, coming soon, where I give more insight into all things Gears.

This has been an incredible month of Gears of War 3 beta gaming and I sincerely hope that every person, at least at some point, tries out the game’s multiplayer when it releases, later this year.

“There is a moment in gaming, when you’re stacked up against insurmountable odds, when you are your team’s last beacon of hope and the entire match rests upon your survival, when you fight and take it right to the bitter end before going down in a blaze of glory, that you begin to realise: This is why I became a gamer. This is who I am, and this is what I live for…”

YES.

As someone that didn’t get to play the beta (new to Xbox and currently casually playing GoW 1 and then 2), this write up has made me want to pre-order GoW3.

Nicely done.

Dean

Have you read the others? Links on the side – by previews :p

http://egamer.co.za/author/cavie Caveshen

Why thank you. :)

Alessandro

Thanks man, really enjoyed writing

Rez

I loved the Beta unfortunately I didn’t get as much time as would of liked to play and only managed 100 matches. The Cole Train and Gold Retro Lancer unlocks for retail felt like real achievements.

I actually think that the Retro Lancer unlock was just to get people to use it. My preference of rifle was between the Hammerburst and Lancer (although a large portion of my 1590 kills were actually with the Gnasher) as I found the Retro Lancer to wild in aiming from distance.

However when I hit match 90 and hand had 1.5 days to get 100 kills with the Gold Retro Lancer to unlock it I had to learn to use it efficiently. The only way to use it is is short bursts and quick active reloading to make sure the guy you just downed doesn’t get a chance to recover or give someone else time to kill him. I managed to get the retail unlock in about 7 matches.

TDM was a brilliant experience and the pooled lives was a brilliant take on a team working together rather than just every man for himself. King of the hill was hyper energetic and the Gnasher (and probably the sawed off for those who used it) ruled in the CQB that ensued to break the ring while rifles had to be used fast and accurately from a distance to pick off enemies trying to do he same. I only played 5 matches of Capture the leader and it was entertaining but being the leader is a stressful job and sometimes you have to stay out of the action for the good of the team.

The mortar in Thrashball is always a game changer and can let you come back from the brink of defeat.

I had some problems connecting to servers with having to wait up to 20 minutes to get connected a couple of times. However except for one extremely laggy match most of my matches were completely lag free.